Most Notable Violations in August 2017

SNHR has released eight reports with the start of September 2017, documenting the most notable violations that were perpetrated by the seven parties to the conflict in Syria in August 2017 – civilian death toll, victims due to torture, most notable violations against media activists, most notable violations against medical and civil defense personnel and their respective facilities, toll of arbitrary arrests, most notable massacres, barrel bombs use, and most notable incidents of attack on vital civilian facilities. These reports highlighted the impact of the series of de-escalation agreements on the rates of violations by the parties to the conflict in August. These agreements were established on the grounds of Ankara Ceasefire Agreement, starting with the first agreement that came into effect on Saturday, May 6, 2017, as it was announced at the end of the fourth round of Astana talks, followed by South Syria Agreement which went into effect at 12:00 of Sunday, July 9, 2017, and was announced by the American and Russian presidents on the sidelines of the 2017 G20 Hamburg Summit. The two agreements were followed by a number of local agreements that were struck in a number of opposition-held agreement such as the de-escalation agreement in Eastern Ghouta, which commenced at 12:00 on Saturday, July 22, 2017 after it was signed in Cairo by representatives from Jaish al Islam and Russian military officials, while Failaq al Rahman had signed the same agreement in Geneva with Russian military officials, provided that the agreement would go into effect at 21:00 of Friday, August 2017. Additionally, a de-escalation agreement in northern suburbs of Homs governorate and southern suburbs of Hama governorate was signed in Cairo, Egypt’s capital, and came into effect on Thursday, August 3, 2017. At 12:00

These reports draw upon the daily documentation processes during August, where SNHR, through its scattered members throughout the Syrian region, monitors violations by the parties to the conflict, and publishes most notable news, before releasing a preliminary death toll at the end of each day. For more information, please see our documentation and archiving methodology.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights, founded in June 2011, is a non-governmental, non-profit independent organization that is a primary source for the United Nations on all death toll-related statistics in Syria